Large-Format Photography

[Rob MacKillop]

I'm happy doing 35mm film work for a long while, but this just caught my eye, and I have to say I'd love to have it:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Shen-...178?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item418f8b2162

The price is not so bad, but the lens is not included, and I imagine a good lens would cost a LOT.

So, where would one start in this area? An old, original camera, probably needing repair, or a shiny new one like this Shen Hao? And what lenses would you need? What else would you need? And what would be a sensible overall budget.

My use would be Edward Weston-style shells, still life stuff, black and white. I don't mind if it takes me a year to get up and running with it.

@Pete Askew and @Anyone Else

 

[Hamish Gill]

I've had a MPP for a while ...
Very near to lift off with it now. Bought a 1 degree spot meter today for some proper zone system metering. Have some film to shoot. Just waiting for a bit more light in the evenings and I'm rockin!
Seemed like a mountain to climb at one point, but seems more than attainable now ...
But that is coming from a position of having a MPP fall in my lap, a mate wanting to go out shooting 4x5 with me, a lot of reading about the zone system and a load of large format dev kit landing in my lap.
From a standing start it has seemed like the longest path to action I've taken in photography, but I suppose the format is about being slow ...

Not really any answers for you I'm afraid Rob, but some thoughts non the less

 

[Rob MacKillop]

MPP?

 

[Hamish Gill]

http://www.mppusers.com/microtec.htm
I think mine is a VI or maybe a VII

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I'm finding this site interesting - and a little sobering. I'd like to have much more control over my medium-format cameras before venturing into LF.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info

 

[Ian Grant]

LF is fun, I bought my first LF camera in 1976/7 a De Vere monorail with Whole plate, Half plate and 5x4 backs, not very portable it stayed in a studio.

MPPs are OK but they are often selling for far more than they are really worth, steer clear of the MicroPress as it has very limited movements. I had a chance to buy an MPP Mk VI factory modified for Wide angle work with a mint late 150mm f.6 Xenar for £185 about 3 weeks ago, but don't need another 5x4 camera, the lens alone was worth over £100.

The Shen Hao comes without a lens, by the time you add a lens or two, some DDS (film holders), buy a developing tank the costs shoot up, you may also need a better tripod.

Personally I prefer LF over MF because I have more controls, I found my Mamiya 645s limiting at times, I needed movements to control the plane of sharpness where stopping down to increase depth of field was not enough, so bought a Wista 45DX back around 1986 for landscape use. I still use MF with a TLR but my LF cameras are my main tools.

These days I also shoot 10x8 and more recently have begun 7x5 with an early 1900's Seneca Improved View.

If you lived closer Rob I'd say come and see what can be done, how different types of LF cameras differ, how to use them.

Ian

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I love the images on your website, Ian, especially the one of the colliery cable cut into a tree. What camera was the Agenoria series made with?

I also like the fact that you present series', rather than "random" images.

 

[Ian Grant]

The Aegean 5x4 images are shot with 3 different 5x4 cameras, the earliest with a Crown Graphic and re-WWII 135mm f4.5 Tessar (which I later swapped for a 203mm f7.7 Ektar). Some with my Wista 45DX, most with a Super Graphic. I often have to work hand-held where tripods aren't permitted and the Crown & Super Graphic are fairly easy to use hand held. The downside of the Crown Graphic is limited movements, I leave it in Turkey. The Super Graphic has enough movements for my work and was a bargain -just over £100 but needed some repairs and parts, which cost me another £50

The MF (square) images are shot with a Yashicamat 124, the panoramics with a Gaoersi 6x17 camera.

I've worked on series' of images since the mid to late 80's, I rarely shoot random images outside the series' but when I do it's because I think they might be a possible start or spark for another series. Makes life easier and the work more coherent, it doesn't stiffle diversity though.

Ian

 

[Pete Askew]

I can only echo what Ian has said and also what Hamish infers. Yes, to a certain extent LF slows you up and you can spend a long time setting a shot up. But then again, Weegee shot reportage on a 5x4 Speed Graphic! As to what to get, there is a lot of choice.

The Shen Hao is designed as a field camera (ie relatively light and portable). To a certain extent this type commands a premium. If you want to shoot LF indoors then a monorail camera might be a good starting point (a field camera will be fine inside also). However, I have a friend who is selling a Walker 5x4 with a lens (the same person that Hamish bought his MPP from in fact). I can ask how much (I have just emailed him) but I think it will come in with the lens at similar to the Shen Hao (it looks very similar but probably better built - it is not one of his new ABS designs - it comes with a Schneider Apo Symmar 5.6/210, a polaroid back, a rollfilm back, a Kodak Readyload, a spare lens panel and spare focussing screen).

Here is an example monorail camera:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-S...564?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2a4c694bec

And don't forget, the lenses will fit anything as long as they cover the format so you won't get locked into one camera.


Your biggest obstacle getting into LF will be developing the film. There may be a lab near you but ideally you would process it yourself. This is much harder to do at home and without a darkroom than smaller formats although not impossible. It is a shame that your experience in that darkroom was so bad - would you consider trying again (and making sure they turn the extractors on!)? Is is especially so if you want to exploit zone system techniques (which were designed with sheet film in mind after all) as you might want to vary the development of each sheet based on your normalised process.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

It's getting scary already

Before buying anything I'll try to crack manual exposure with the F4 and the RB67 ProSD.

You are right, Pete, in that I should be developing my own. I've just read the Cafenol Bible, and with a little help from the girls, there might be a possibility of doing it. We shall see.

 

[Ian Grant]

Film processing is easy so have a go. I process my 5x4 & 120 negatives in our bathroom in Turkey, then print them while here in the UK.

I used a Calumet 5x4 monorail on one trip back to the UK when we were living in Turkey it wasn't as nice to use outside the studio. There's a practicality using field cameras that's hard to explain it's easier to show people in practice.

Ian